Sci Fi Novel

Here is a sample from my novel which is under way. It is a sci fi novel littered with the wackiest creatures, characters, places and situations imaginable. I haven’t decided on the title yet, and I have a way to go with structure, but its bound to be a romp.

More than anything its aim is to entertain – mostly through comedy.

The sci fi novel is usually based around an idea rather than a character. Also the the comedy sci fi novel is very rare.

My sci fi novel may be turned into a trilogy. It will span as much of the ‘known universe’ I can fit in as well as a part of a couple of ‘other’ universes.

At present this is the second chapter of my sci fi novel. If you have any comments to make please do so.

Enjoy.

In and Out of the Closet

The palindrome thought that he was self-contained, but in reality, he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. His movements were always well balanced, but accomplished nothing. His arguments and ideas were always circular. However, despite the fact that most of his arguments ended up at the beginning they were still considered brilliant by most. This wasn’t because they were, but because they tended to make any listener dizzy while hearing them. Yet he was admired by most, because of the unsolved riddle that he had always remained, but especially admired by himself. Vanity was not in his vocabulary – it was who he was.

Realistically, he was an official, working in various offices of the government. He told everyone that it was he who was responsible for regulating the water cycle, but, of course, by the end of telling them this, he would prove in his statements that this was not so. He thrived on pretension, was both sincerely insincere and fraudulently truthful. Unfortunately, his philosophy, that life was all about balance teetered on the edge of his little private world and subsequently never reached anyone. He was a universe contained within himself.

Just a building away the miracle caressers slinked into the room. Everyone was at first entranced. The miracle caressers’ form was indeed inviting; far too inviting for description, for even just a description of them would cause a reader to try to physically dive into this story and this could cause the reader serious physical harm; but the mental damage would be even more extreme. After a variety of uninitiated life forms replaced their vision receptors back in their sockets, they found themselves instinctively moving towards them.

However, the miracle caressers did not like being touched. As the initiated fled the room, the miracle caressers extended their frozen enamel fingernails and scraped them across anything that could produce a sound chill enough to decompose the average spinal column in thirty-seconds. Thoughtfully, they only scraped for five-seconds – leaving everyone collapsed on the floor, quivering in spasms, and realising that after surviving that, they could survive anything.

The miracle caressers had made their point.

The miracle caressers did not come from any particular place. They were sheer beauty and only ever inhabited the scenery. The miracle caressers had come together for a meeting with the imporfectionists.

The imporfectionists were a different kettle of fish, altogether. Actually, most thought that they looked nothing like a kettle of fish at all, and that the taste of the tea they served from their spouts was more like slimecrash. (Slimecrash is the bitter taste one gets in the mouth when one’s brilliant idea or faultless argument is revealed to be just plain stupid.) The imporfectionists forced their tea on everyone with irresistible politeness, creating a kind of restrained unhappiness for all who drank it. Subsequently, nobody liked the imporfectionists.

They were also very unattractive. Their transparent torsos showed the dead fish which floated in their boiling water and gave their tea its bitter taste.

However, the imporfectionists were immune to the allure of the miracle caressers. The miracle caressers were sheer physical perfection, which was in no way attractive to the imporfectionists, and the miracle caressers were blessed by this, for the imporfectionists felt, them undeserving of their tea and so the miracle caressers did not despise them and treated them with a muted respect. This resulted in a relatively friendly relationship.

In his polished circular office, the palindrome worked on some bureaucratic paperwork that would never be read and would soon be filed in a draw that would never be opened again. He called his secretary in to file the finished paper. She entered walking backwards to his desk, which was to his liking, received the paper and walked out without having to turn. The palindrome loved economy and approved of all types of energy saving. Later on at lunch, they spoke face to face. The secretary sat admiringly, gazing at her boss as he spoke around in circles. She was amazed at how good he was at impersonating himself.

His voice was like crystal but he was in fact, composed of only glass and mirrors. The mirrors were all facing inwards, which provided the palindrome with a convenient excuse for constantly grooming himself. He never looked into other mirrors because he believed they might distort his view of himself. What others thought of him was of no concern to him either, but he did enjoy the admiration of his colleagues – but ultimately took this admiration for granted.

Drogo blurmped awkwardly, while Bland walked excitedly, while Hack trudged miserably. They all headed for the large collection of lights that decorated this strange place, up ahead. It was taking longer than they had at first thought. It certainly must have been huge and Bland wondered if there were people there that he could talk to. He hoped that they had not invented fire for this was the one thing that he was an expert at inventing; but judged by the look of all the lights that they probably already had. He hoped that they spoke of things other than art, or even more exciting – that there were other scientists that he could learn from and teach things to. He patted Drogo occasionally on the head despite the squirmy feeling it gave his hand, and Drogo snorted in response. Occasionally Drogo would speak in ways that tested Bland’s physical constitution, but Bland not only survived these utterings, but survived sufficiently for him to realise that he did not understand a word that Drogo said.

Twenty feet behind them, Hack kept his distance. Hack was not only keeping a physical distance from Bland and Drogo, but was mentally keeping his distance from just about everything in the universe.

He yelled to his brother.

“Where are we going?”

“Who knows – the lights?”

“I don’t see what’s so great about the lights. What if there’s something dangerous there – what’ll we do then?”

“We’ll just have to deal with it when it happens, I guess. Why am I yelling at you? Why don’t you catch up to us?”

“I’m not going near that hideous monstrosity.”

“He’s harmless. Anyway, he probably finds us just as hideous.”

“Oh, right.”

Hack was certainly repulsed by Drogo – the very sight of him caused involuntarily evaporation…and his voice made him want to cut his ears off, deposit them in a blender and pour the icky remains into a volcano.

Yet it was not these things he detested the most. It was IT. IT had mocked him from the moment he had seen it. IT was a sleight on his whole existence up to this point. Hack wished that IT would go away, even more than the rest of the creature put together.

Soon they came to a tall but small construction, which was surrounded by fluffy creatures, which floated above the house on the end of ropes that were tied to wooden fences. Bland knocked on the front door instinctively, not knowing that it was a door or that knocking on it was the proper way to enquire within.

A small giraffe answered.

“Yes, what can I do for you?” he said. The giraffe frowned when he saw Drogo but decided that intense ugliness was not a sufficient reason to be rude or unwelcoming.

“Hi, I’m Bland.” Bland looked at Drogo for a moment and said. “I’m not sure what this creature’s name is but he seems friendly enough. This is more than can be said for my grumpy brother Hack.”

Bland gestured toward Hack who had stopped about ten feet distant. Hack was looking all around him, pretending not to notice what his brother and friend were doing.

Bland continued. “We were on our way to the lights, but they seem to be a little further away than we thought. We were wondering – what are the lights?”

The giraffe looked a little confused.

“That’s Egopolis.”

Now Bland looked confused.

“It’s a city, made largely of glass and mirrors, although there are also buildings of stone, cheesecake and wood. Everyone there is a little crazy. I’m not sure that you’d like it, but you might find it an interesting place to visit.”

Bland looked back at Hack and thought to himself that Hack would surely fit in to the population of this ‘city.’

“How many people live there?”

“Well, you can’t really call most of the inhabitants there ‘people’, but the intelligent entity population is around four million.”

“Wow.”

“It’ll take you another four hours to reach it on foot. Would you like to come in and have some refreshments? Oh, by the way; you don’t know what all those extra lights in the sky are, do you. They just appeared in the sky tonight.”

The giraffe pointed to the Quizbits who were still floating above the city. Their size had stabilised and they looked like extra large stars, which were floating just outside the atmosphere of the world above which they floated.

Bland gestured to Drogo. “You might want to ask him about that – although I don’t think you’ll understand his answer.

The giraffe said to Drogo instantly in Drogo’s own language, which sounded like a coven of witches screaming themselves inside out, “Do you know what those lights are?”

Drogo answered causing all the floating sheep suspended on the end of the ropes to wail in agony, while the giraffe nodded seriously seemingly understanding every noise.

“You know what he said?”

“Yes.”

“You speak more than one language?”

“Of course. All giraffes speak many languages. We are certainly well equipped for it. The length of our throats allows plenty of room for many tongues.”

“What did he say?”

“He says his name is Drogo the blog. He says he doesn’t really know why he’s drawn to the lights but, he knows he has a connection to them and that something important will soon come of this connection.”

The three of them entered the giraffe’s home, which was adorned with very tall chairs and tables. There were ornaments of trees, birds and people and pictures of other giraffes. They sat down to some warm milk and grass bread. The giraffe was very friendly and Bland spoke to him about his inventions and about Hack’s paintings. He told the giraffe of how they had spent their entire lives in the confines of the cave not knowing that a whole world was only a few feet away. Then he told the giraffe of how Drogo had freed him and his brother.

Hack remained silent most of the time. He sat behind Drogo, not wanting to look at IT and be demoralised by it.

The giraffe said, “Well, it certainly sounds like you have much catching up to do. I think that you’ll find your visit to Egopolis very exciting. You will meet many of your own kind there, and many other intelligent individuals.”

Bland turned to regard his brother who was still sulking in the background, and decided to ask a question, which might cheer him up.

“Do they have any art galleries in Egopolis?”

“Oh, yes. Many. I’m sure that your brother will love them and he may even be able to exhibit in a couple of them, if they like his work.”

Bland turned to his brother. “Did you hear that – you might become famous?”

Hack pretended indifference, but in reality, he had to exercise extreme self-control to stop himself from evaporating from excitement.

They spoke for a while about many things, most of which Bland and Hack did not understand and they left the giraffe more confused than ever, but they were certainly refreshed.

Then they continued their long arduous journey. Hack still kept a distance from Drogo, but his mood was lifted by the news of the art galleries and he began to dream up possible scenarios involving his impending success as an artist.

They passed through a small cool forest of sticks, which swayed in the breeze. There were many insects there – transparent butterflies, which sang like children, green golgits the size of ants that would dive into pools of water and retrieve large fish fifty times their size, which they ate in a single gulp and the tiny grasshopper-like shobies which did nothing while awake – they would just sit and stare. However when they were asleep they lived a full life, hunting for food and chirping madly. They would spend their waking hours extremely bored, and wishing that their lives were as interesting as their dreams.

Yet the most annoying insects were the tiny cerebies which were the most stupid of all insects, and tried to make up for their stupidity by eating the brains of larger creatures. When one flew into Hack’s ear and bit, he squealed angrily and evaporated instantly. The cereby now had nothing to bite on and flew off. Both Hack and Bland had to stay partly evaporated for most of their trip through the jungle. Drogo was safe from them. Whenever a cloud of them came too close he merely said something and they would all die an excruciating death – they soon learned to stay away from Drogo.

Later they came to a road of warm ice. They all found it much easier sliding along the road – especially Drogo and they began to near the city sooner than expected.

When they approached the city they failed to see the clear glass wall that surrounded it and slid right into it. Drogo became almost completely flat for a moment and they had to wait for him to reshape himself before they could continue.

They travelled along the invisible wall until they came to a gate. The gate was made of stone and no one guarded it.

They entered the city of Egopolis.

Immediately, their presence created a panic among a multitude of residents which horrified and appalled them.

Afternoon Storm, Coffs Harbour

The painting Afternoon Storm, Coffs Harbour is done in oils and depicts a storm coming from the Dorrigo Plateau towards Coffs Harbour. In spring storms often come from this direction. Then they pass over the town in the late afternoon.

Afternoon Storm, Coffs Harbour $440 Oil on board 29 * 75 cm

In this afternoon storm, the clouds looming on the horizon still allow a little sun to shine through. The hills are in shadow.

A Brief History of Landscape Painting

Portraiture and history painting dominated the art market in the centuries leading up to the eighteenth century.However, there were still some notable works of art which concentrated on landscape.

Leonardo was well known for adding complicated landscape behind his portraits. The most famous is the moon-like landscape behind the Mona Lisa.

Leonardo da Vinci Madonna on the Rocks

Other artist like Hieronymus Bosch painted vast landscape littered with people committing all sorts of weird acts. He also added fantasy creatures and strange objects, trees and animals. Other artists to paint landscapes in this early period of the genre included, the Van Eyck brothers. The neo classical French artists Claude and Poussin also concentrated on landscape. Poussin often used it as a backdrop for his history paintings.

The Romantic Movement.

It was the Romantic Movement which saw landscape painting come into its own. Artists like Caspar Friedrich, Constable and Turner painted a great variety of landscapes.

Friedrich’s landscape pondered the greatness of God. They were vast and had little features and details.

caspar-david-friedrich-winter-landscape-with-church-1811

In the painting above the trees mirror the place of refuge the pilgrim seeks. The church is blurred showing the masterful use of aerial perspective. Today most landscape artists have a thorough knowledge of aerial perspective.

Constable painted delicate images of the English countryside. While Turner painted quickly and masterfully. His paintings of the sea have a great deal of movement in them.

Today landscape paintings are done with much variety. It would be interesting to see what a google search for ‘afternoon storm’ might show.

New Haiku

Here are some more new haiku I’ve written. The topics are varied.

The Haiku is usually a short, impressionistic poem. However, a haiku also has other characteristics:

It focuses on nature or the seasons

A division into two asymmetrical sections. This creates a juxtaposition of two subjects (e.g. something natural or human-made, two unexpectedly similar things. Yet there is still a relationship between the two.

A contemplative or wistful tone.

There are no superfluous words

imagery predominates over ideas and statements, so that meaning is typically suggestive, requiring reader participation

Little use of metaphor and similes

The lines don’ rhyme

There are also one line Haiku (monoku) and other variations. I like to use the restrictions of the traditional form (3 lines, 17 syllables {5,7, 5}).

My New Haiku

A snoring partner

Could it be the sound of love

smiling at the world

Red licking at black

The fire is brazen, blazing

New growth will soon come

After the Fire $155Oil on canvas 32.5 * 22.5 cm

His bark protects me

Don’t look at me like that

All right, here’s a treat

Cock a doodle doo

Tweet, twit, tweet, twit, tweet, coo-it

Time to crawl from bed

Hands covered in clay

I do what I love to do

Clothes covered in paint

Rows of marching ants

A frenzy round a dead bug

Gather for the Queen

The wind is swirling

Leaves spiral with loose paper

Dust stains the windows

A baby crying

A tired mother answering

It’s love that I hear

Mighty yellow disc

Rests on the edge of the world

Then sinks down to sleep

Atop a mountain

The stars sparkle forever

God lives in the land

Ferocious lion

His thundering roar shakes mountains

Tummy rumbling

Your name is your self

It feels strange upon your lips

Who the hell am I?

Wind rushing through hair

Running, jumping, screaming joy

Being is pleasure

Hope you enjoyed my new haiku. I will be publishing more writing soon.

Morning Dew

This landscape has been added to the landscape paintings page. It’s called Morning Dew.

Morning Dew.

I’ve contrasted the muddy dryness of the grass with the soft peace of the sky. There are few clouds in the sky. What is there is very thin and will probably burn off as the sun comes out.

Latest Music.

Lately, I’ve been working on a few landscapes. However, I have mostly been concentrating on music. I am just beginning to add other instruments to the piano. I have also been creating experiments with mixing other instruments and sounds.

Music production is difficult. It is more technical in nature than composing.

The painting above would go with many of my piano pieces. Therefore, most of them are gentle and peaceful. I use the pedal a lot, so the notes can linger. Another technique I use is easing the volume of instruments in and out. Most of all I create an atmosphere of peace and tranquility in most of my pieces. Consequently, I don’t write a lot of songs. I don’t use a lot of rhythm.

Soon, I hope to create series of small pieces related to some of the writing I’ve been doing lately. I have poems, short stories and a science fiction comedy novel to play with.

Finally, I will be posting more piano pieces and other pieces onto the website and Facebook very soon.

Haiku

Haiku are short poems about nature. They are traditionally written in 3 lines (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables). Today there are other variations, but I like the restrictions the traditional sort put on the writer.

Often there is a twist or surprise in the poem. This makes them interesting. This form of poetry originates from Japan.

The story of Haiku.

Haikus express a single moment or inspiration. They are strongly linked to nature. Sometimes they expound a single idea in their three lines. However, most of them are split, with a juxtaposition occurring within the poem.

Haiku do not rhyme. The Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki (19th century) gave the form its name.

Today, poets from all around the world experiment with the Haiku.

Utopian Mountainside $780 Pastel on Paper 50 * 70 cm

These are my first attempts. Please tell me what you think.

Haiku

Tall and strong they sit

The majesty of mountains

Some birds in shadow

A clap of thunder

Flash! Silhouettes come alive

The roar rolls on by

The leaves turn to red

Autumn: the weeping season

Red beds slowly brown

All creation laughs

Its music is always there

Sing and make merry

A drone of crickets

Summer heat bathes me in sweat

Clap! The rain falls down

Your heart goes silent

Eyes meet and all becomes still

Remember to breathe

I hope you enjoyed these haiku. With practice, I should improve. I haven’t written a lot of poetry lately which is not good. If I wish to write words for some of my musical pieces and turn them into songs I’ll need to pick up the pace. Hopefully these haiku inspire you to do your own. Remember, you don’t have to stick to the traditional form.

What Jack Wanted!

What Jack Wanted is a short story about greed taken to the extreme. You can read the full story in the short story section of this website.

Can you guess what significance the image below has in relation to the story?

Modendaity $780 Oil on canvas 60 90 cm

What Jack Wanted.

It started with a new car. Oh, it was big and flash and red – his favourite colour, and a thrill to drive. Yet it simply wasn’t enough. In a week or two he’d tired of it and then he felt empty again.
So he worked harder, earned more money. Yet hard work was dull and exhausting. He didn’t want to grow old and it was not enough to get him what he really wanted. So he searched inside himself – but there was nothing there. So he searched externally and found much – especially on surfaces, for that was all he could see.
He started a business.
Now he needed followers, helpers – and he found them. He filled the holes in their personalities with flattery. They couldn’t resist him. They were like him soon. He owned many of their thoughts.
Soon his business had turned to businesses – all of them booming. Good ol’ Jack was as regular as they came.
Everyone loved him.
Politics beckoned, but he took it slowly. Everything was going too fast.
He wasn’t even sure what he wanted any more.
What did he want?
He went home to his family, but they were only vaguely there. They were like him already.
Soon he owned a dozen red cars and a private plane that allowed him to visit the kids. Yet he never did – only when his wife suicided.
This upset him, so he decided to buy a Swiss Bank – while no-one was looking. In a week or so he felt better.
Now Jack had become a human magnet.
People and possessions gathered around him. He accepted them all and put them to good use. More and more of them were becoming like him every day. Yet something was missing. He needed time to think it through. Yes!
Time! That was it.
He went on a holiday, but everywhere he went people flocked and his time disintegrated. Everyone loved Jack, but they couldn’t give him time, only take it. Still he decided it wasn’t important anyway – for now.
Now Jack owned a parking station full of cars and their red chauffeurs. Jack said all the right things at all the right times. How adorable could a man be?
Then one day he noticed a bald spot on his head. Jack saw red, so he patched it up and carried on. No-one would know.
However, Jack did. This prompted him to feel lonely, so he organised an orgy, but was disappointed because all that his friends and associates did was scratch one another’s backs.
Now questions rained on him. Who was he? Was there a God? What did he want?
What did he want?
It sat on top of all the rest. He answered….

Revelation (resurrection) Leonard Aitken – Artist.

Revelation (resurrection)$6000 Oil on canvas160 * 124 cm

Revelation (resurrection) is a painting of titanic proportions.

A revelation is a surprising fact which is disclosed to someone, which often has a noteworthy effect on the person’s life. In the case of a revelation from God, the ultimate revelation is when God reveals himself to someone that turns a person from spiritual ignorance to realising the depth of God’s influence on his life and destiny. It is this ‘initial’ revelation which is very much like a resurrection – largely because is is linked to the resurrection of Christ Himself and leads to the resurrection (or being ‘born again’) of the individual, through Christ’s resurrection.

The painting ‘Revelation (resurrection)’ describes this relationship between an individual’s revelation of God’s place in the world (and our lives), and the actual resurrection of Christ.

Christ’s resurrection opened the door to a re-union of humankind with God once and for all.

When a person realises the place of God in their lives and submits to his infinite love and wisdom, they are immediately “born again”. This is a resurrection on a personal basis for all believers. The believer has attained ‘eternal life’.

The painting is painted loosely with an aim to emphasise the drama of such a moment. Such a momentous revelation is shown to be like emerging from quicksand and gasping at the clean air of salvation. It is the salvation of the believer which leads to their resurrection into the new ‘heavenly life’ of communion with God.

It is this revelation which leads to Heaven.

Yet there is pain in this revelation. This new life is not without its sacrifices and there are always times and places when we can be sucked back into the quicksand through laziness or personal, spiritual neglect. A resurrection born of such a revelation is one which needs to be nurtured through diligence, patience, love and steadfastness. Communication with God is the key – and without the resurrection of Christ, this communication is impossible – for He (Christ) is always ready to intercede with God on all our needs.

The painting is a rendition of that great storm that accompanies such a grand revelation as the one described. It is the storm before the calm and peace of eternity.

Conceptual Paintings for Illuminate

These conceptual paintings for Illuminate were mostly completed in the last few weeks before the opening of the exhibition. The first painting here is titled As I Walk.

As I Walk $1350Oil on canvas 84 * 84 cm

This is a mixed media painting about the journey through life and its various trials and tests. We all face difficulties and sometimes it is just necessary to ignore everything that is going on around us and just power forward. The silhouettes represent any person walking through life. The colours of the surroundings are the distractions which beset us and sway us from the path that leads to peace and happiness. The giant Chinese dragon’s head hovers above the walkers, but is tied to a different realm and can’t really hurt those he preys on unless they let him. The paw prints offer an alternative to walking through it all.

After the Fire $155Oil on canvas 32.5 * 22.5 cm

The second of the conceptual paintings for Illuminate is called bushfire. There is no deep and meaningful agenda here. The painting is a study of light with yellow and red dominating. Yet the purple behind the tree gives the viewer a cool spot to rest his eye. The painting is optimistic because the tree has remained intact despite the passing bushfire.

Personal Formulations $1450 Oil on canvas 100 * 100 cm

The third of the conceptual paintings for Illuminate includes more silhouettes of people hanging from clothes lines in space. The silhouettes suggest that we perceive people in ways that are simplified for convenience sake. It is often the kind of mind that categorises people as stereotypes which also views the world as a kind of movie peopled with characters that are basically one dimensional. Here the only figure with substance is the central dancer – a kind of fantasy figure that could be the projection of a person’s wish to become someone great, or possibly an object of desire.

Illuminate Paintings

Here are some of the Illuminate Paintings which have been added to the collection on this website.

Revelation $6000 Oil on canvas 120 * 165 cm

The first of these Illuminate paintings is Revelation. This is a large painting painted using a variety of techniques. The colours are quite sombre in comparison to my usual palette.

What exactly is a Revelation? It is a heart and gut felt understanding of something which one has probably already known for a while. However, with the revelation comes a deeper understanding which can be life changing and in the case of the painting even life saving. Here the revelation is almost like a resurrection. The understanding comes when the subject is buried in quicksand or the earth and emerges at the point of understanding.

The air he now breathes is the revelation and it has given him new life. I wanted the drama of the painting to emphasise the crucial nature of a true revelation. Getting the sand to move up the hand and wrist was difficult. I had to mix loose quick brushwork (to create the illusion of movement) with the need to make the sand, rock and dirt look real.

Blue $1250 Oil on canvas100 * 75 cm

The second of the Illuminate paintings is titled Blue. Blue is a modest sized painting which definitely has a fantasy edge to it. The landscape is serene and peaceful. Yet it becomes a base for the powerful, confronting and almost soaring sky. There is no sad mood here. Instead the blue is the colour of freedom, imagination and boldness. The clouds on the right are almost like an angel with its arms outstretched.

Geo – Abstract $135Oil on canvas 20 * 20 cm

The third of the Illuminate paintings is titled Geo – Abstract. It is a purely experimental painting where thin layers of paint create shafts of light across forms that absorb, deflect or ignore the light. This is a tiny painting and the first of a small series of similar works which I will be doing over the coming months.

All three of these paintings is contained within the gallery on the Conceptual Paintings page of this site.

New Paintings

Here are some new paintings which were produced for the Illuminate exhibition.

Tulips $1150Oil on canvas 100 * 75 cm

The first new painting is simply called Tulips. It celebrates the colour yellow and the way light plays with and enhances this colour in nature. I wanted these flowers to be both monumental but also intimate. The painting shows how the surrounding light can feed and nourish not only the flowers themselves but the beauty they project.

The tulips appear to be immersed by light, but at the same time appear to want to take off as if they are ready to fly on their own, because of the energy the light imparts to them.

Glorious Leaves $850 Oil on canvas 100 * 75cm

Glorious Leaves is another new painting where a powerful light dominates and enhances the features of the motifs. The leaves are backlit, with the light slightly to the left of them. The play of light and shadows created by the layers of leaves, creates exciting patterns that add life to the painting and the leaves themselves. Depth is created by the dark corner (bottom right) and the highlights on the left side of the painting. These leaves seem to be like a community. Just the way they sit together suggests that they are in unison with one another and the light which permeates them gives them a strong and confident air.

Garden with Angelets $950 90* 90 cm Oil on canvas

The third new painting is titled Garden with Angelets. This painting is about fun and life. The inclusion of the Angelets helps add a fantasy element to the painting. The flowers seem to be frolicking and there are little sparkling lights everywhere. The movement and general atmosphere of this painting is light and breezy. This painting could cheer just about any room with its colour and its light.

All three paintings have been added to the botanical paintings page of the site.